https://twitter.com/johnrobb/status/1416834199097643013?s=20

https://twitter.com/BostonJoan/status/1417452201878954005?s=20

Think of the CHILDREN!!

(The whole thread is really good. Local stores putting up signs on where to get vaccinated and barbers debunking anti-vax myths is cool.)

“Dirt road Democrat.” I like that. 🙂

https://www.axios.com/covid-vaccines-low-income-poor-workers-58698275-0451-4158-a967-37189dbf673c.html

So, I saw this story earlier and had a thought, but got interrupted by life.

I feel like this graph tells more than one story: really low-income people unable to get the vaccine because they’re working two or three jobs or are in areas that just don’t have the vaccine or are unable to find transportation, etc., etc.

But the bump in the middle? Not that poor. My feeling is that those are the Trump voters, red staters who’ve simply decided they ain’t gonna do it, period.

Of course, there’s probably a fair amount of overlap, and the signal is noisy, but still….

https://seveneightfive.com/local-218-utility-relief-fund/

(Fund closes July 23.)

People in Topeka are working 84-hour work weeks to produce snack foods (none of which I eat, I don’t think), and they’ve had enough.

Unions have been weakened over the years so they are less able to support strikes like this.

I donated.

https://twitter.com/HuffmanForNC/status/1416721848486793219?s=20

Scott Huffman for NC (@HuffmanForNC) Tweeted: Critical Race Theory #CRT lesson one: Your grandparents identify with one of these two groups, and have handed down their values. Take all the time you need with this. – JJ Westgate #ncpol https://t.co/cZ5rfieRoU

https://twitter.com/JessicaScott09/status/1416253969047990274?s=20

Holy moly, this thread is quite the cri du coeur. Read it before it disappears.

Jessica Scott (@JessicaScott09) Tweeted: Has anyone considered that sustainable readiness is/was the army’s organizational way of over working itself so it could avoid the trauma of a fucked up war with no moral purpose?

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/07/convincing-the-skeptics/

«To understand vaccine skeptics, proponents need to understand that the skeptics typically don’t fear COVID. They may fear that taking the vaccine is, in some way, to consent to the view that their freedoms are dependent on…»

Blah blah blah blah. I just remembered: for years, I refused to see E.T., simply because everybody told me I should. I really dug in.

«If vaccine advocates really do want vaccination uptake to increase more than they want to feel superior, they have to change course.»

Wow. There is a Whole. Lot. Going on in this sentence.

https://www.thv11.com/article/news/local/arkansas-mom-regrets-not-getting-her-child-vaccinated/91-f6d38e7e-883e-4c98-a3f9-00f5f52e8bac

So, right after I posted a cranky reply-guy thread (as a reply, of course) on Twitter about how everything is meaningless (I’m still right), this came up, as if Someone was showing me that not everything is meaningless.

So, right, this isn’t meaningless. As a parent, and as someone who’s seen multiple family members in the hospital, I can relate to this mom’s feelings. It’s not pleasant, and it got me right in the feels. Compounding the worry about having a child in the hospital is the parental guilt of not having gotten said kid vaccinated. I’ve got my own share of parental guilt, but mine will be nothing compared to hers if Caia doesn’t make it. Also not meaningless.

Part of the reason I’m reacting like this is these folks are Like Me. Yeah, I’m an east coast liberal, and a man, but still, whiteness trumps all that.

I believe that if I saw a picture of a child not Like Me on a respirator with his or her eyes closed because he or she was doped to the gills on sedatives (imagine having a big ol’ tube shoved down your throat, and a plastic bubble inflated to fill your throat so the only way you can breathe is through the tube, and you can’t swallow), I’d feel as sympathetic. I hope I would. I think I would.

Anyway, it’s awful and shouldn’t happen to any child, no matter what their parents are like.

I hope she’s young and strong and pulls through and has a long, happy life. And vaccinates her kids. And drinks fluoridated water. And never assumes public health policy is some sort of conspiracy that takes away her liberties.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/covid-vaccines-biden-trump/2021/07/15/adaf6c7e-e4bd-11eb-a41e-c8442c213fa8_story.html

Surprise! \o/